


Usnavi: An American Musical

by cutielemon07



Category: Hamilton - Miranda, In the Heights - Miranda
Genre: F/M, It's just a bit of fun, Modern AU, Usnavi is Hamilton and Hamilton is Lin and Lin is Usnavi, also the ITH characters are pretty much just referenced not actually in it, and hamilton is the playwright, and lin-manuel miranda is a character, and played Lin-Manuel Miranda in it, dont look too deeply into this, hamilton wrote in the heights, i guess, mentions of Lin Manuel Miranda, seriously though, soo...., this is just really weird ok, this is the kind of AU you're dealing with here, where usnavi is the guy on the ten dollar bill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-07
Updated: 2018-01-07
Packaged: 2019-03-01 10:20:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13292787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutielemon07/pseuds/cutielemon07
Summary: Alexander was left speechless. He had never heard of this man before in his life. But his life certainly sounded interesting."Where can I read more about this guy?" Alexander asked."Well, historian Ron Chernow wrote a book about him, which is what I read." John said."Can I borrow it?" Alexander asked hopefully."Sure you can." John said. "But it's not a light read. It's practically a brick."Alexander Hamilton is a playwright living in New York City. He has been mildly successful with his sort-of-but-not-quite biographical musical In the Heights in which he plays Puerto Rican bodega owner Lin-Manuel Miranda. One day, he hears on the news that the guy on the ten dollar bill is changing from president James Monroe to someone that Alexander had never heard of-a random guy, an immigrant from the Caribbean who wrote his way out of poverty to become the nation's first Secretary of the Treasury, only to die in his late forties in a duel. Usnavi de la Vega. Surely this wouldn't be the start of a seven year obsession to turn this astonishing man's life and accomplishments into a hip-hop musical... Right?





	Usnavi: An American Musical

Alexander had just heard it on the news. The Treasury had announced that they were changing the person on the ten dollar bill from James Monroe to some dude called Usnavi de la Vega. And Alexander has no _fucking_ idea who this person is. Nobody Alexander knew actually did. Except for one. 

"Oh yeah." John said.

He and Alexander were in the local McDonalds. John was eating a Big Mac as Alexander picked at his fries. 

"I know who Usnavi de la Vega is." He said casually.

"Then who is he, Laurens?" Alexander asked. 

"He was the first Treasury Secretary." John replied. "Born in the Dominican Republic, he became orphaned, so he came over here with his cousin. They both fought in the Revolution alongside Pete Stewart, the artist and spy, and Pablo Garcia, the great Puerto Rican commander, who went on to fight for independence from Spain." He took a bite of his burger and then a sip of his Coke before continuing.

"So then Usnavi became the right hand man to General Benny Jackson. After the war was won, Benny Jackson became the first president and Usnavi became his Treasury Secretary. He married a girl he met in New York, Vanessa Nuñez. Had an affair with another woman, wrote a tell-all about it. Famously clashed with the Rosarios-they were the Clintons of their time. Then he died at age forty seven in a duel back in 1804."

Alexander was left speechless. He had never heard of this man before in his life. But his life certainly sounded interesting. 

"Where can I read more about this guy?" Alexander asked. 

"Well, historian Ron Chernow wrote a book about him, which is what I read." John said. 

"Can I borrow it?" Alexander asked hopefully.

"Sure you can." John said. "But it's not a light read. It's practically a brick."

* * *

And so Alexander borrowed John's book. The first chapter was... Well, to put it bluntly, it was kind of bare. There wasn't much on this Usnavi dude. It was mostly his family's affairs. Still, Alexander kept reading. He plodded on and on and-Usnavi's mother died? Alexander brought the book closer to him and read more carefully. Yes, Usnavi's mother had died. In the same way that Alexander's mother had died. 

Hold up-a hurricane killed most of Usnavi's family?! A hurricane had killed most of Alexander's family too! Maybe Alexander had more in common with this Usnavi dude than he'd previously thought.

When he was around halfway through the book, Alexander picked up his phone and called John.

" _Hamilton, what's up_?" John asked. 

"Laurens. I've found my next project." Alexander said.

" _Yeah? What is it? Another musical based on cheerleading_?" 

"John, I want to write a musical about Usnavi de la Vega."

A pause on the other end of the phone. " _I'm sorry, Hamilton. Did I just hear you say that you wanted to make a musical about a two hundred year old dead guy_?"

"A hip-hop musical." Alexander added.

" _So should **I** call the psych ward and tell them to expect you_?" John asked. " _Or are **you** going to turn up there yourself_?"

"Come on, Laurens, Usnavi de la Vega is the most hip-hop sounding name going."

" _No-Tupac, Notorious BIG, 50 Cent, Jay-Z... Hamilton, **those** are hip-hop names._ " John said. " _People associate Usnavi de la Vega, Benny Jackson, Ben Franklin, John Adams, John Jay, and Camila and Kevin Rosario with being Founding Fathers._ "

"Except Camila Rosario was a _woman_." Alexander pointed out. "And therefore couldn't be a Founding _Father_." 

" _Fucks sake, Alexander._ " 

"Besides, this Usnavi guy-his story is just so stereotypically hip-hop. He was born in poverty, he wrote his way out and right up to the top of the political food chain." Alexander argued. "And I flipped to the end-dude died in poverty and debt too. It _literally_ doesn't get more hip-hop than that." 

" _You really **are** serious about this thing, aren't you_?" John asked. 

"Well... yeah." Alexander said. "Laurens, this ain't no Springtime for Hitler shit. I _honestly_ believe I can do this. And so does Eliza."

" _Well_." Alexander could hear nothing but John's breathing on the other end. " _Fine. I'll help you._ " 

"Thank you so much, John, you won't regret it!" Alexander said excitedly. 

" _I'm already beginning to_."

* * *

It had been a month since Alexander had read all of John's book on Usnavi de la Vega. He had given the book back to John and bought his own copy, which, considering it was only a month old, looked tattered and worn out already.

Peggy had picked the book up and looked through it, notes scrawled at the sides, underlined, highlighted passages and pencil writing flooded the pages. She put it back down on the coffee table and glanced around. 

All of Alexander's friends had gathered because he had asked them to. Nobody had a clue what was going on. Not really. 

"Hey guys." Alexander greeted, a nervous twang in his voice. Alexander was never nervous. Something had to be wrong. "I'm glad you're all here." 

"Are you dying, mon ami?" Lafayette asked, his French accent coming out thicker in his worry. 

Alexander chuckled. "No, Laf, I'm not dying."

"Then why did you ask us all here?" Aaron asked. He was sitting in Alexander's office chair with his arms folded.

"Because... Betsey and Jack already know this, but I'm writing a new musical-"

"What about?" The improbably named Hercules Mulligan asked.

"Um. It's about a guy." Alexander said. "I know what you're all going to say, after In the Heights, but the guy isn't me, this time, it's-"

"Usnavi de la Vega." John finished helpfully. 

"Yes. It's about Usnavi de la Vega." Alexander said.

The room went briefly silent as they stared at Alexander. Then murmurs arose, mostly 'who is this Usnavi guy?'.

"de la Vega was," Alexander cleared his throat, "he was the first Treasury Secretary. He served in the army during the Revolutionary War directly under Benny Jackson, the then-commander in chief." 

"You're writing a musical about a dude who's been dead like two hundred and fifty years, Hamilton. An _obscure_ dead dude. Your third musical and it's going to be a flop. And people will forget you."

"Thank you for the words of encouragement, Burr." Alexander said sarcastically. "Does anyone know who Usnavi de la Vega actually is?"

John put his hand up. 

"Anyone _besides_ Jack Laurens?"

Peggy put her hand halfway up but lowered it quickly.

"Peggy. Go." 

"He's going to be on the ten dollar bill." Peggy said.

"Is that _it_?" Alexander asked to no response. "You guys are _really_ missing out. He was absolutely the greatest person in all of... go look him up! He's so-"

"Seems Alexander has a man crush." Angelica said.

"Just listen." Alexander said. "Listen to this. I mean, it's only like, the first draft. But I want to build on it." 

And so Alexander goes into his song. It's brief, but it sums up Usnavi de la Vega's first eighteen years of life nice and succinctly.

"Guys. Any notes?" Alexander asked. 

"Bastard orphan isn't exactly the nicest way of referring to someone." Aaron said. "I could actually call _you_ a bastard orphan-"

"Thank you, Burr." Alexander said. "You rich boy orphan."

"Better than being a _peasant_ orphan."

"Hey!" Alexander snapped. "Bitch, my play's on _Broadway_! What have _you_ done?"

"I'm _in_ your play!" Aaron snapped back.

"Okay, Alex, Aaron. Calm down." Eliza said. "We all have our accomplishments. Nobody's is better than any others'." 

Peggy put her hand up again. "I liked it. But it would be better with music."

"I'm writing the music for it." Eliza said.

"Alex. It's interesting, for sure." Angelica said. 

" _And_ all historically accurate." Alexander said.

"But... Should it _really_ be told from the point of view of 'the damn fool that shot him'?"

* * *

Alexander almost totally rewrote the song from scratch. He kept the bit about Usnavi's parents dying, his 'Abuela' practically raising him, the hurricane, and he, his cousin and his 'Abuela' moving to New York. But he put Usnavi de la Vega as the narrator, telling his own story-and no, Usnavi wouldn't be the one to humble-brag like that, he's not John Adams. So he changed the narrator to Usnavi's cousin Sonny and no, that doesn't feel right either. 

Alexander decided to leave it, hoping inspiration will strike another time. Until, that was, Alexander was offered to perform at the White House in front of President Barack Obama. He didn't want to sing from In the Heights. So, despite his endless anxieties, having not performed the song for... anyone really not named John, Eliza, Peggy, Angelica, Hercules and Lafayette, Alexander goes and performs it anyway. He was last, the headliner, so to speak. He threw up in the bathroom, more times than he cared to admit.

And he has second thoughts. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to do It Won't Be Long Now or Breathe. Sure Alexander may have been a guy, but he could sing an octave lower, right? And Eliza could transpose it, right? Still, he went up on stage, took on the persona of Nina Rosario and rapped about Usnavi de la Vega. People laughed. _Just you wait_. He thought. The end came and Alexander nearly puked again, this time in front of President Obama. Then he noticed, people were clapping for him. The Obamas had given him an ovation. He had clearly done something right.

But the song still didn't feel right. Taking his mind off it, he went back to work as his character in In the Heights; Lin-Manuel Miranda.

As he sang out the first song, Alexander noticed that the other characters come on and sing about themselves and that struck Alexander with inspiration! Inspiration that he couldn't really write down until the intermission. 

So that's what he did, he ran to his dressing room and store down his ideas-in his Usnavi musical, the opening number would be sung by everyone! Everyone saying their bit about Usnavi de la Vega. There would be a verse for Nina Rosario, her parents Camila and Kevin Rosario, his cousin Sonny, Pete Stewart, Pablo Garcia, Benny Jackson, Vanessa Nuñez-there wasn't enough verses for that... lines then. They would all have some lines. Even Usnavi himself. 

_My name is Usnavi de la Vega and there's a million things I haven't done, just you wait_

Alexander went back to his dressing room after that show was over and brought all of his notes back home. Mostly to scream to Eliza how his plans for Usnavi had changed. 

"But do you think you can do that? Pull it off? The ensemble doesn't usually sing about the main character in the first song." 

Alexander's heart sank. He knew that Eliza was right. So he put the song on hold.

Instead, he started writing another song. Arguably the most important one in what he hoped would be his musical. Alexander began work on the 'I Want' song. That was when he truly started to collaborate with John, who, as Alexander's closest friend, got privileged first access to Alexander's material. It also didn't hurt that he was a Broadway producer. 

Alexander decided on the characters needed very early on-Usnavi was a given. This was, after all, his 'I Want' song. Sonny needed to be there. He was smart. His rap represented that. And _someone_ had to get the subject onto Abolition. Why not Sonny, who was one of the biggest Abolitionists of his time?

Who else? Pete Stewart. He had to be in there. Alexander had written a sick rap for him, he was going in there. Who cares that he was actually Sonny's friend-he interacted with Usnavi too. And Pablo Garcia. Sure Pablo absolutely one hundred percent never _actually_ historically met Pete or Sonny. But he had to be in the musical because of those letters. Those gay reading letters that Pablo and Usnavi had sent each other. And Alexander _knew_ gay when he saw it. He had dated John Laurens for a while. Because Pablo had to be in the musical, he had to be in that scene. 

Lastly, Alexander knew that Nina Rosario had to be in there. She _had_ , after all, been the one to fatally shoot Usnavi, bringing shame on her family. And Ron Chernow had written about how Nina Rosario's and Usnavi de la Vega's lives had pretty much run parallel... yeah. 

However, as Alexander found out, writing it would be no easy feat. He would go on to spend a year writing this song. The song that would later be titled-in a cruel twist of irony-"My Shot".

* * *

In the Heights closed its run on Broadway, leaving Alexander, well, a little bit sad, really. He actually missed playing Lin-Manuel Miranda eight times a week. But it left him with more time to write his musical about Usnavi de la Vega. Which wasn't really all that bad for him. 

Sure he took some film roles and TV roles in the meantime-he had to make money somehow if he was going to finance this pet project of his. Well, In the Heights had been his pet project, but now the Usnavi de la Vega musical was.

And besides, with one show closed, another opened-that musical about cheerleading. Bring it On: The Musical. Because of course. How else would someone know it's a musical if it didn't have 'The Musical' tagged on at the end? Not that In the Heights had 'The Musical' tagged on. Then again, it wasn't based on anything. Okay. So it didn't have _'A_ Musical' tagged on at the end.

Despite the closure of In the Heights, it had been a good year for musicals, all in all. There had been a revival of Sweeney Todd and Hercules had managed to score tickets. Alexander went with Hercules, John and Peggy to see Sweeney Todd. 

Inspiration struck yet again for Alexander and he ran out and back home, if only to watch Hercules with Eliza. Yes. There _were_ examples of other characters singing about the main character in the introduction song! 

* * *

Alexander carried on writing the musical, but after writing the Cabinet Battle raps, hit a roadblock. Eliza suggested to get out of the country and Alexander jumped at the chance. He chose the Dominican Republic, the island on which Usnavi had been born. 

Unfortunately, a week into the visit, the Dominican Republic got battered by the Category 2 Hurricane Irene. While holed up in their hotel room, the experience got Alexander working on the song for the musical that would later be titled Hurricane. 

When he got back to New York City, Alexander began to seek out historians to help him make the musical historically accurate. With the help of Ron Chernow, Alexander's creative juices were flowing and he managed to write most of the songs for the musical over the next two years. 

He did have to put the project on hold when Disney called him and offered him to write some songs for what would be their next princess movie; Moana. Of course he said yes! 

* * *

"Betsey. You don't get it. This has to be _perfect_." Alexander said as he and Eliza were sat down at Eliza's piano. 

"I know. It's your baby." Eliza said. "But as the composer, it's _my_ baby too. And don't forget that, as he's producing it, Laurens has some stake in this too." 

"That's _why_ it has to be perfect." Alexander said, still insistent upon nothing less than perfection. "Betsey, don't you see? Usnavi de la Vega is haunting me. His ghost haunts me at night so I can't sleep. He haunts me whenever I open my goddamn wallet-do you even know how many ten dollar bills I have now?" Alexander didn't wait for her answer. "Enough to start a museum of ten dollar bills if people were interested in seeing different serial codes. That's too many, Betsey."

"Maybe you bit off more than you could chew." Eliza said.

"No. No way."

Eliza closed her piano. "Come on. Take a break. You haven't had a proper rest in days."

"Because every time I close my eyes, I see Usnavi de la Vega's face and I'm disappointing him."

"Alexander, you are _not_ a disappointment."

"What if this show is my legacy?" Alexander asked. "What if people look at it and think 'that Alexander Hamilton idiot made a stupid hip-hop musical about the first Secretary of the Treasury which is the _worst flop_ in Broadway history'."

"Or they could see it as the _greatest_ _show_ in Broadway history." Eliza said.

Alexander shrugged. "I'd be happy with nothing less than changing the world, but I suppose I could _deal_ with being _just okay_." 

"That's a better way of looking at it." Eliza smiled lightly. "Besides, there's no way this thing can be worse than the Carrie musical." 

"Oh shit." Alexander exclaimed. That musical was so bad he had erased all memory of it. Sure he hadn't seen it as he'd been too young and he wasn't that psyched over the revival, but it was alive and kicking in the minds of playwrights who wanted deeply not to sink lower than that bar.

"Yeah. You're right. A really low bar to... almost step over, but I can aim to be better than that, at least."

"Come on. Rest is the best thing." Eliza coaxed. "You don't need a legacy."

"Hah!"

"You already have In the Heights. And Moana." Eliza said. "That would be enough." 

"Well, that depends on if Moana's good or not." Alexander said.

"Besides. I have something important to tell you."

"What's that?" Alexander asked as he put his notes back in neat little piles on top of the piano.

"I'm pregnant." 

* * *

After that, Alexander found that Vanessa wanted to sing again. Mainly about Usnavi coming home from the war unscathed. And he used some of Eliza's words to do it. 

_But I'm not afraid_

_I know who I married_

_So long as you come home at the end of the day_

_That would be enough_

"Is there any historical basis for this?" John asked, after Alexander had demo'd it to him.

"Uh... no." Alexander admitted. "I just _felt_ like Vanessa should say it. Sing it."

"Like that song you wrote with her and her hairstyling buddies, Daniela and Carla?

"Hey, I'll have you know that The Barber Sisters is where the story really starts to form and take shape." 

"Why not start it there after the Usnavi de la Vega song then?" John asked.

"Because we need a song introducing Nina Rosario. That would be Nina Rosario. We need the 'I Want' song, which is My Shot. And we need foreshadowing, like in The Story of Tonight." Alex argued. 

"Fine. Let's get this done then." John said. "Call Herc. Tell him he needs to design eighteenth century costumes."

* * *

Alexander added the final song to the musical after his son Philip was born. He knew that Usnavi and Nina had kids about the same time, after the Revolution. Usnavi and Vanessa having a son, coincidentally also called Philip. Nina and Benny having a daughter called Patsy. Alexander channelled all the feelings of love he felt for his son into a song called Dear Daughter Patsy.

_Dear Daughter Patsy, what to say to you?_

_You have my eyes, you have your mother's face_

_When you came into this world, you cried and it broke my heart_

Then Alexander realised he had to change one of the songs. The one where Sonny died in a duel. Not because it wasn't sad enough. But he needed to thread some lyrics back through. 

Unfortunately, it ended up even more depressing and sad. To the point where when rehearsals started, nobody could bear to sing it without tearing up. Especially not the poor actress playing Daniela. 

After that, Alexander made a quick change to the song where Usnavi's beloved Abuela died. He changed it more to a scene. With Usnavi, Sonny and Vanessa talking as Abuela sang. Just because he felt like being evil and making people cry. 

It certainly worked.

* * *

When the musical-aptly titled Usnavi: An American Musical-premiered off-Broadway at The Public, audiences loved it. And responded in all the right places.

They cried at the death scenes. They laughed at King George III. They were on the edge of their seats when it came to Usnavi's affair with Yolanda. And they liked that it featured the original first family of politics, the Rosarios (take that Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton!) and humanised them-particularly Nina. 

It wasn't long after that they previewed on Broadway. At the Richard Rodgers theatre. Where In the Heights had been shown all those years ago, back when Alexander had first started writing this thing. In fact, Alexander was still tweaking right up until opening night and carried on portraying Usnavi himself. He'd hoped people would like this. He hoped critics would like this. He hoped people should know who 'the new ten dollar bill guy' was. But mostly, he hoped he'd done Usnavi de la Vega proud.

* * *

After the first showing of Usnavi ended, the theatre came quickly to a standing ovation and Alexander didn't know what to do with himself with all the applause. He just stared ahead, almost like a deer caught in the headlights with only one thought in his head.

_Usnavi is going to be huge._

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! I found this in my notes on my old iPad. I wrote during tech runs it when I was playing Graffiti Pete in a production of In the Heights.  
> Basically, it was supposed to be an In the Heights fic where the ITH characters went through the Revolution instead of Hamilton and Co. Then it turned into this.  
> Basically, Alexander is a mix of Hamilton and Lin. Usnavi is a mix of Hamilton and Usnavi. And Lin is just a fictional character in a musical that Alexander wrote. And all of Alexander's friends are involved in Broadway in some way.  
> John is a producer, Eliza is a composer, Hercules is a costume designer, Aaron is an actor and I know I didn't mention this, but Lafayette is a choreographer and Peggy and Angelica are actors too.  
> If you don't know, Springtime for Hitler is a fake musical in The Producers that they hope will flop, but bafflingly becomes a success instead.  
> Hurricane Irene did actually hit the Dominican Republic as well as New York. The irony is no matter where Alexander had been that day, he would have been battered by a hurricane and written that song anyway.  
> The Carrie musical is widely considered to be the worst. I've not seen it-too young.  
> The Barber Sisters. Heh. Daniela, Vanessa y Carla are not sisters in this. They just have a sister-like bond and are barbers.  
> Usnavi and Vanessa having a son called Philip is a reference to Hamilton and Eliza having a son called Philip-which they did here, but after Eliza's father. Don't look into it too much.  
> Nina and Benny having a daughter called Patsy is a reference to Martha Washington having a daughter called Patsy, who George adopted. He also adopted her son Jack, but My Son Jack doesn't fit into the melody of Dear Theodosia.  
> If you're wondering which ITH character is which Hamilton character;  
> Usnavi is Hamilton  
> Sonny is a composite of both Laurens and Philip (there to be Usnavi's friend and dies in a duel in act 2)  
> Benny is George Washington (his last name is Jackson as in Chris Jackson. And the neighbourhood is called Jackson Heights)  
> Graffiti Pete is Mulligan (his last name is Stewart as in Seth Stewart)  
> Piragua Guy is Lafayette (I gave him a name here, Pablo Garcia to reference one of my favourite cartoon characters atm. There was a fight for independence between Spain and Puerto Rico later on. Though that was in 1896. I just moved it up a bit)  
> Vanessa is Eliza (she has the last name Nunez because of a cartoon character as well)  
> Daniela is Angelica (without the flirting)  
> And Carla is And Peggy  
> Kevin Rosario is the historical version of Bill Clinton (he served as president. I straight up just took Jefferson out of the narrative)  
> Camila Rosario is the historical version of Hillary Clinton (she wasn't president. Or maybe she was. You decide)  
> Abuela Claudia holds the same role (only she dies at the end of act 1, leaving Usnavi to grieve her in Non-Stop)  
> Yolanda is Maria (from the line 'Usnavi had sex with Yolanda' in No Me Diga)  
> Finally, Nina holds the role of the Aaron Burr figure. You might wonder why I did that, since it's against her character and you know what, I agree. It is against her character. But someone had to do it. Someone had to kill Usnavi in a duel. Why not Nina? Her presidential parents and husband and her serving as vice president, her having children-well, that would be shocking. Just as shocking as the 'friendly' vice president murdering the former Treasury Secretary in a duel. Yes, Nina was friends with Usnavi and close to his Abuela until she died. Which makes it more shocking. Basically, it all boils down to it has to be as shocking now as it was back then.  
> Just don't look into it much and just enjoy it.


End file.
